The reappointment of John Pluthero, above, as chief executive of Cable & Wireless Worldwide has raised governance concerns about the telecoms group. Photograph: Reuters

Since joining the company in 2005, John Pluthero, below, has collected almost £15m from Cable & Wireless. Back then, the shares were hovering around 100p; now the combined share price of the two companies C&W was split into is 83p.

Pluthero's huge pay packet is the result of C&W's controversial £30m-plus private equity style long-term incentive plan (LTIP), which he described as "a tool adopted to make sure we carried out the turnaround" of the company.

"Do I work harder because there may or may not be a certain price at the end of the rainbow? Well, work it out for yourself," Pluthero has said of the LTIP, which has invoked the ire of both shareholders and corporate governance bodies.

In 2010 alone, Pluthero collected £10.9m after the plan paid out £8.3m when C&W split into two companies, C&W Communications (CWC), which runs the telecoms operations of several Caribbean countries, and C&W Worldwide (CWW), which operates the telecoms of mostly UK-based multinationals.

Pluthero was granted a £75,000 pay rise to £675,000 on his reappointment as chief executive, following the resignation of Jim Marsh after a third profits warning. Marsh, who collected £9m from the plan between 2006 and the demerger, saw his basic pay and benefits rise by 45% in 2010-11, while the shares dropped 43%.

"The appointment of the CWW CEO as executive chairman, then chairman (with no reduction in salary, in fact a total remuneration above that of Vodafone's chairman), and now CEO again raises governance concerns," Delfas said in a note. "The CEO appointment was made without a search for alternatives, which again raises governance concerns and we think may be questioned by shareholders."

Delfas said C&W's senior management has been paid more than £35m since Pluthero joined, more than CWW actually made in cash terms.

"Throughout this period the new CEO has been heavily involved in the business, judging from company statements and the level of remuneration," he added, pointing out that CWW is the worst performing telecoms stock in Europe.